Stupid quote of the day [updated]

From Canoe: Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale, Canada's "research chair in social justice and sexual health" (never mind asking what those two things reasonably have in common) wants the government to:

require warnings on packages about how often condoms break and leak, leaving people at greater risk of pregnancy and disease.

For what purpose? To deter condom usage for, say, disease prevention? Is Maticka-Tyndale against condom usage? Or does she propose some alternative besides "no sex for you?" Not in this article, she doesn't. That certainly seems like a responsible, reality-based message.

But wait, the kicker is here:

"We always assumed that whatever the failure rate is, it is due to human error -- that we don't store them properly, we get our fingernails caught in them, we don't make sure that there is enough air in the tip," she said.

Words fail. Let me spell it out: Canada's sexual health research chair, critical of condom failure rates, thinks that when you put on a condom, there should be plenty of air in the tip.

Update: In response to a private email (because the quote was so unbelievable, I had to ask her for clarification) Eleanor Maticka-Tyndale writes:

Dear Andy,

I just saw the article and there are several errors in quotations. I will contact them and request a retraction of the ones that clearly misinform, such as air in the tip of a condom. The quote should have read, 'no air in the tip ...'

This is one of many reasons why many researchers refuse interviews with the press! Thank you for alerting me.

Eleanor

So: I take it back -- about the quote, anyway. I still think failure warnings on condoms are counterproductive, even if the intention is to make manufacturers accountable for failure rates.